I was born in Red Bank, NJ in October 1956, a few days after Don Larson pitched a perfect game in the World Series. Red Bank was also the birthplace of Count Basie, the legendary bandleader. In addition, I share my birth date with Martina Navratilova. I am the oldest of 3 brothers and a sister, all 2 years apart in age. In 1993 I became the first Mac user in my family and now that over half of my family (including my inlaws) own Macs, I consider my Mac evangelism successful.

My first exposure to computers was in high school at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft NJ, and in college, The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Those experiences were based on timesharing mainframes. My first personal computer was a 286 mail order PC that my wife Robin and I decided to buy shortly before the birth of our first son in 1989, so that we could bring work home from our PC based offices and spend more time together as a family. That son, Bryce (now 14), is named after the Utah canyons. Soon afterwards, my neighbor bought a Mac Classic, but that was not an option for us, as it was more money than our budget allowed. One of the first applications I bought for the 286 was Excel with a runtime version of Windows. Later, I was an early adoptee of Word for Windows.

At the time of the birth of my second son Cassidy [now 11 and yes, named for the Grateful Dead song!] in 1993, I was working for a CIGNA subsidiary, Intracorp, using a Mac SE/30. Soon I was using a Mac Portable with 9 MB RAM. I was hooked on Macs for their ease of use, easy networking and portability [even the SE/30 was luggable]. I enjoyed working on the real versions of Word and Excel.

I wanted to get a Powerbook 180 for home but did not have $2-3000 to buy a new machine to replace the 286. However, on Good Friday 1994, I saw my chance: in a "For Sale" ad in the Inquirer, was a 4 MB RAM version of a Powerbook 180 for $1400, with a greyscale active matrix screen to die for. Scoop! An additional 10 MB of RAM was $330, and an internal modem was $150. I was in heaven with my AOL account, Claris Works, Claris Organizer and Claris Emailer (until recently the only email program which could download AOL email).

That Powerbook 180 with the MacVGA Adapter from Apple's Powerbook DOS Companion package became the first Mac to hook up to the overhead projector at Paoli Memorial Hospital. Prior to that we had been told it was a PC-only projector. We were then able to usher in a great series of Potter Room presentations with Dave Marra, Jason O'Grady and Bill Achuff, and the ever popular Power Hour with Bob Barton on the keyboard and mouse, and Moe Comeau at the mike. John Linton gaveled over that zaniness like a concert maestro.

This year I am celebrating 10 years as a laptop user; since 1994 I have owned a Powerbook as my primary computer — a progression of models from 5300ce, 3400/180, Wallstreet II G3/233 (later to be upgraded to a G3/500), and now my TiBook 667DVI. Most I kept for several years, a testament to their durability, expandability and my passion for finding low cost upgrades and opening the case myself. Other desktop Macs have been in the house, used by my wife my and sons. Robin is now is using a G3/500 Powerbook, loving it, and wishing she could use it for work.

Several years back I adopted the nom-de-plume of "The Frugal Mac" and wrote a column for MLMUG. One column about used Powerbooks was reprinted by another MUG journal. The column is back in this issue of MLMUG journal.

I want to thank so many of you, but space does not permit, for your years of voluntarism, never ending enthusiasm and dedication to all things Macintosh.

— Ed Stevens